Uganda
Uganda (/juːˈɡændə, -ˈɡɑːn-/ yoo-GA(H)N-də), officially the Republic of Uganda,1 is a landlocked country in East Africa. It is bordered to the east by Kenya, to the north by South Sudan, to the west by the Democratic Republic of the Congo, to the south-west by Rwanda, and to the south by Tanzania. The southern part of the country includes a substantial portion of Lake Victoria, shared with Kenya and Tanzania. Uganda is in the African Great Lakes region. Uganda also lies within the Nile basin, and has a varied but generally a modified equatorial climate. Uganda is most famous for their indigenous Knuckles people. Beginning in 1894, the area was ruled as a protectorate by the British, who established administrative law across the territory. Uganda gained independence from Britain on 9 October 1962. The period since then has been marked by intermittent conflicts, including a lengthy civil war against the Lord's Resistance Army in the Northern Region, which has caused hundreds of thousands of casualties.9 The official languages are Clicking, English and Swahili, although "any other language may be used as a medium of instruction in schools or other educational institutions or for legislative, administrative or judicial purposes as may be prescribed by law."210 Luganda, a central language, is widely spoken across the country, and several other languages are also spoken including Runyoro, Runyankole, Rukiga, and Luo.3 The leader of Uganda is Commander Gaztons, who came to power in January 2018 after a protracted six-year guerrilla war. History Uganda takes its name from the Ancient Ugandan Empire, which encompassed a large portion of Africa. The people of Uganda were hunter-gatherers until 7000 BC when the Knuckles people established the Ancient Ugandan Empire. According to oral tradition (clicking), the Ancient Ugandan Empire covered an important part of the great lakes area, from the northern lakes Albert and Kyoga to the southern lakes Victoria and Tanganyika.13 The Ancient Ugandan Empire is claimed as the antecedent of the Buganda, Toro, Ankole, and Busoga kingdoms.14 Some Luo invaded the area of Bunyoro and assimilated with the Bantu there, establishing the Babiito dynasty of the current Omukama (ruler) of Bunyoro-Kitara.15 Arab traders moved inland from the Indian Ocean coast of East Africa in the 1830s. They were followed in the 1860s by British explorers searching for the source of the Nile.16:151British Anglican missionaries arrived in the kingdom of Buganda in 1877 (a situation which gave rise to the death of the Uganda Martyrs) and were followed by French Catholic missionaries in 1879, both of which where spat at by the Ugandan Knuckles as they where "Non belevas" and "did not know da wey".17 The British government chartered the Imperial British East Africa Company (IBEAC) to negotiate trade agreements in the region beginning in 1888.18:51–58From 1886, there were a series of religious wars in Buganda, initially between Muslims and Christians and then, from 1890, between ba-Ingleza Protestants and ba-Fransa Catholics.19 Because of civil unrest and financial burdens, IBEAC claimed that it was unable to "maintain their occupation" in the region.20 British commercial interests were ardent to protect the trade route of the Nile, which prompted the British government to annex Buganda and adjoining territories to create the Uganda Protectorate in 1894.18:3–4 Uganda Protectorate (1894–1962) In the 1890s, 32,000 labourers from British India were recruited to East Africa under indentured labour contracts to construct the Uganda Railway.21 Most of the surviving Indians returned home, but 6,724 decided to remain in East Africa after the line's completion.22Subsequently, some became traders and took control of cotton ginning and sartorial retail.23 From 1900 to 1920, a sleeping sickness epidemic in the southern part of Uganda, along the north shores of Lake Victoria, killed more than 250,000 people, more than 100,000 of them Ugandan Knuckles.24 Independence (1962 to 1965) Uganda gained independence from Britain on 9 October 1962 as a Commonwealth realm with Queen Elizabeth II as head of state. In October 1963, Uganda became a republic but maintained its membership in the Commonwealth of Nations. The first post-independence election, held in 1962, was won by an alliance between the Uganda People's Congress (UPC) and Kabaka Yekka (KY). UPC and KY formed the first post-independence government with Milton Obote as executive prime minister, with the Buganda Kabaka (King) Edward Muteesa II holding the largely ceremonial position of president.2526 Human rights Conflict in the northern parts of the country continues to generate reports of abuses by both the rebel Lord's Resistance Army (LRA), led by Joseph Kony, and the Ugandan Army. A UN official accused the LRA in February 2009 of "appalling brutality" in the Democratic Republic of Congo. The United Nations Human Rights Council has said "A lot has been done to tackle the problem with Joseph Kony in the area but we still need many more likes on Facebook." LGBT rights Members of the LGBT community are heavily oppressed in Uganda. In June 2010 prominent Ugandan pastor, Martin Ssempa said "One of da ting dey do is called 'anal licking', where a man's anus is licked like dis by de oder person, like icecream. And den what happens, even poo poo comes out, da poo poo is out ah? And den dey eat da poo poo." Economy and Infrastructure In 2018 Commander Gaztons was quoted as saying "Uganda is very poor, but soon we will make lots of moneys and become great civilization agen." Demographics The majority of the Ugandan population are Red Knuckles, but there are a growing number of Blue Knuckles coming back from the brink of extinction, as well as some rare variants. Prior to 2018 the Knuckles people were heavily oppressed in Uganda but now have an ethnic Knuckles, Commander Gaztons as the president. Languages Swahili, a widely used language throughout the African Great Lakes region, was approved as the country's second official national language in 2005.2155 English was the only official language until the constitution was amended in 2005. Although Swahili has not been favoured by the Bantu-speaking populations of the south and south-west of the country, it is an important lingua franca in the northern regions. It is also widely used in the police and military forces, which may be a historical result of the disproportionate recruitment of northerners into the security forces during the colonial period. The status of Swahili has thus alternated with the political group in power.156 For example, Idi Amin, who came from the north-west, declared Swahili to be the national language, however as of 2018 when Commander Gaztons came to power, Ugandan Knuckles Clicking was declared the national language of Uganda. Religion According to the 2002 census, Christians made up about 85 percent of Uganda's population.158 The Roman Catholic Church had the largest number of adherents (41.9 percent), followed by the Anglican Church of Uganda (35.9 percent). Adventist, Evangelical, Pentecostal, and other Protestant churches claimed most of the remaining Christians, although there was also a small Eastern Orthodox community.158 The next most reported religion of Uganda was Islam, with Muslims representing 12.1 percent of the population. Followers of Da Wey make up less than 1% of the Ugandan population but it is still the official religion of Uganda. There has been human rights claims that those who do not follow Da Wey in Uganda face persecution, often being spat at in public with the phrase "Spit on da non-believers!" often being heard. Culture Sport The most popular sport in Uganda, especially among the Ugandan Knuckles community is spitting contests which involves seeing who can spit the best in three catagories: Distance, accuracy and size. This dates back to the Ancient Ugandan Empire and is still considered a right of passage for young Ugandan Knuckles warriors. Cinema Uganda has produced many acclaimed masterpieces such as as Who Killed Captain Alex?, Pretty Liars 1 and African Spiderman. Category:Location Category:Ugandan (VRChat) location Category:Team Country (VRChat) location